Let’s Talk Upgrades.

One of the features that sets Mantis Burn Racing® apart from other racing games of its kind is the RPG-style upgrade system. This allows you to fine tune your vehicle’s handling and performance to your exact preference and playing style, pretty neat huh? The game’s RPG-like upgrade slots give you an almost infinite amount of vehicle variations that help keep the game interesting and challenging long after you first take to the tracks!

Inevitably we get a fair few questions about this from people… what is this upgrades system you speak of? Just how does it all work? Well, we hear you, so we’ve devised this nifty ‘Upgrades FAQ’ which we hope answers those questions and more. Have a read. See what you think. If you’re still confused or just want to say hi, drop us a tweet @VooFoo.

Mantis Burn Racing® – Upgrades FAQ

How do I get upgrades?

Upgrades can be gained from two areas in the game, the XP line and the career grid. An infinite supply of upgrades travel down the XP line as you earn in-game XP. The further along the XP line you travel, the more powerful the upgrades become. Upgrades can also be found in every career season. Some lie directly on the career path, others sit in regions of the grid that can only be collected when all of the surrounding events are completed.

What do upgrades do?

Upgrades are used to improve your vehicle’s performance in 5 key areas, engine, gearbox, tyres, suspension and boost. Every upgrade that is installed to a vehicle will improve its performance in some way, but can also have a negative effect in others. The five upgrades work as follows:

Engine – Simply adds power that increases the top speed of a vehicle. More power requires more skill to control and too much power without traction can cause acceleration sapping wheel spin.

Boost – Increases the period of a boost as well as reducing charge time.

How do I install upgrades?

Each vehicle in Mantis Burn Racing® features an upgrade dial. On the upgrade dial are a number of upgrade sockets, each can be fitted with a single upgrade. The 4 different classes of vehicle in the game each have their own individual amount of sockets.

These are:

Class

Level 1

Level 2

Level 3

Rookie

3

7

12

Pro

4

9

15

Veteran

5

11

18

Elite

3

6

9

Once an upgrade dial is full the player can spend G on levelling up. This can be done on each vehicle to a maximum of level 3. Levelling up a vehicle costs:

Class

Level 1

Level 2

Level 3

Rookie

2,000G

6,000G

10,000G

Pro

6,000G

8,000G

12,000G

Veteran

10,000G

12,000G

14,000G

Elite

10,000G

12,000G

14,000G

I’ve filled my level 3 upgrade dial, now what?

A new feature we added in our latest update was the ability to tune upgrades. This can only be done once a vehicle is fully upgraded. Tuning upgrades costs G and each can be upgraded to x5. A x5 upgrade is five times more powerful than a standard upgrade. Tuning upgrades costs:

Upgrade x1 to x2

5000G

Upgrade x2 to x3

10,000G

Upgrade x3 to x4

20,000G

Upgrade x4 to x5

40,000G

What are multiplier upgrades and how can I get them?

Upgrades are infinite, and the more you play the game, the more powerful they get. Upgrades reach a maximum of x5, or five times more powerful than a standard upgrade. Another way to look at it is that you get the same level of upgrade using one socket as you would using five sockets with standard upgrades. Multiplier upgrades become available when the player reaches desired XP levels. The chance of receiving multiplier upgrades works as following:

Up to XP level 40, the player will only receive standard upgrades.

Once the player reaches XP level 40, there is a 25% chance an upgrade on the XP timeline will be x2

Once the player reaches XP level 70, there is a 35% chance an upgrade will be x2 and a 15% chance it will be x3

Once the player reaches XP level 110, there is a 45% chance an upgrade will be x2, a 25% chance it will be x3 and a 15% chance it will be x4

Once the player reaches XP level 180, there is a 25% chance of an upgrade being x2, a 35% chance of it being x3, a 25% chance of it being x4 and a 15% chance of it being x5.

How do the stat bars and upgrade gauge work?

The vehicle stat bars are provided to give the player information about a vehicles base stats and the effect that adding different upgrades will provide. The stat bars are there purely for a guide. Adding any upgrade will always improve a vehicles stats but this will not always show on the stat bar as it works as a percentage increase, not an exact value.

White sections of the bar show the vehicles base stats.

Yellow sections of the bar show stat increases provided by currently installed upgrades.

Green sections show how adding an upgrade will improve a vehicle’s stats.

Red sections show how removing an upgrade will decrease a vehicle’s stats.

The circular gauge in the middle of the upgrade dial shows the vehicles current upgrade distribution. The more a vehicle is upgraded in one particular area, the more that upgrades colour coding will fill the gauge.

Why can’t I keep upgrades that I remove?

It’s how the game is designed! It’s no fun swapping and changing upgrades between vehicles and it would make the career almost impossible to balance to give the player the most satisfying feeling of progression. Unlike almost all racing games, our upgrades are infinite and constantly become more powerful. The only time it’s necessary to remove an upgrade is if a dial is full and more often than not, this will be for a more powerful upgrade. Our new tuning feature only adds to the player’s opportunities of upgrading their vehicles to their exact playing style.